He'd doing quite nicely. Recently picked up 10 charges of *Destruction* which is very handy and the good old 'Sting' (as usual) saw him through the awkward mid 20-30 (27 to 36 actual) levels. He levelled up in the Dragon's Lair by digging a nice hidey hole and summoning critters in the Lair for nice one on one fights. Soulsword turned up and this then meant that it was time for the Cloning Pits which was a relative breeze. Pretty much got every resist covered and 364 pts of damage is enough for now.

Time to get to Doom Quest 2 methinks to pick up that handy Staff of Healing which should make him all the more versatile.

Got a bit hairy when he faced the last two Iron Liches together (he teleported away with @60 hps after killing the first one as the second one double moved on him) but it all turned out ok with Hammerhand being in the room as well as gaining his first staff of Dispel Evil.

Lord Alkaline took a risk and charged up both the Staff of Dispel Evil and the Staff of Healing and got 16 and 11 charged respectively. Dispel Evil is usable at 11% failure rate but Healing is at 59% failure which means Int is all important now though his current kit is well suited to covering all resists and assisting with melee.

Screen dump of Staff charges attached. Time for the Haunted House Quest methinks.

He really is shaping up nicely (oh oh - I think I hear the RNG God coming)...

More Quests done and he now has 11 charges of wand of Striking (thanks to Dark Elven Sorceror in the Arena) as well as picking up a Ring of Speed +7 when he went back to scumming the DL (lvl 48 is where he got to there). It was dropped, by all things, by a Cave Troll. LOL - He must've pickpocketed it from the Great Storm Wyrm Lord Alkaline dispatched 5 mins previously.

He's going nicely but am not sure whether to dive more in the Dragon's Lair or do the Royal Crypt Quest. His healing is not really usable in the heat of battle as it's at 56% fail. Oh well - let's see what happens.

On 23.9.2009 05:07 sng.god@gmail.com wrote:I forgot to mention that Lord Alkaline has a scroll of Artifact Creation sitting at home that a Young Multi-Hued dragon obligingly dropped in the Dragon's Lair (level 36) when he was only Chlvl 32. Obviously won't use it yet but it will come in handy down the track I'm sure.

Time for the Royal Crypt Quest and then a bit of a lunch break.

On 23.9.2009 15:48 sng.god@gmail.com wrote:Chlvl 42 and the Royal Crypt done (but it was tough)...

Went in to the Royal Crypt at Chlvl 40 and gained 2 levels. Took down both Black Reavers but it was touch and go on a couple of occasions with them (one of them summoned Khamul and Nazgul + another Reaver etc and it got messy and required some careful footwork to sort through the mess).

One of the Archliches blinked into the first Druj room near the end which was problematic. I lured it to me through the wall as I obviously did not want to go in there and when I'd beaten a fair bit out of him he blinked promptly into the Druj room. Aargh!!!. Anyway I opened up the 1st Druj room from range (with Stone to Mud) and also opened up the passageway beyond (from range) and then proceeded with a game of cat and mouse where I would go to the edge (just out of site) and lob my grenades close to each one (in turn with Rockets obviously). They would summon individually and this was managable. Long story short the room was cleared and he got the last Archlich when he poked his head through the wall from the second Druj room.

Not recommeded for the faint of heart but very rewarding as the loot included:

This boosts his speed. Gets his Int up (Heal goes from 38% fail to 17%), gives him a truckload more hps. The downside is that his stealth is now at the really sucky setting of Fair which means everyone is going to be awake. He also needs to carry a Ring of Sound Res as this is a hole now (still more important to get the +7 from ROS in 99% of cases I think). Time to go to Angband and do some Random Quests (38 and 44 methinks).

Some screenshots of the Crypt attached...

On 24.9.2009 01:55 sng.god@gmail.com wrote:Chlvl 43....Just about to head down the stairs to '38 random quest monster

Zantetsuken was picked up from Ishikawa on the last expedition to Dragon's Lair 60 so the kit was reshuffled to accomodate it. HPS are down and he now has a res hole at Sound (carries a spare ring) but the result is worth it as he now has boosted INT (Thranduil, Caspanion) which means his Heal is at 8% failure. With Telepathay (from Thranduil) his crappy stealth doesn't matter that much as he can see stuff coming and be ready for it in a hidey hole with Z.

Screen shot attached. Time to see who's on lvl 38 and 44 of Angband (and possibly further).

At this stage I decided to take a punt and took the ? of Artifact creation I had gained much earlier from the Dragon's Lair to 80' at Ry'leh and read it on my Dragon Shield {PoShCa} and the result was quite nice (see screenshots).

I've been caught out once before where I didn't get to use one of these scrolls as I was waiting to get to the 90's in Angband and I died before I got there. Figured I could use something now and this was a good candidate.

Sure you could make an argument that I should've waited for something better to read it on later but this helps me now.

It gained:

+4 Stealth/Infravision (not great but the stealth helps)

Immunity Acid (this I like)
Res Conf (helps with versatility)
Res Dis (yes..... Fills the res hole as a Ring of Sound Res can now go in ring slot and he's covered).

All in all I'm happy with this.

Time to knock off the Angband 50 Quest and then head back to the Dragon's Lair.

Major boost just occured with Lord Alkaline clearing out two Dragon Pits (Blue and Black). Acidicus Shiled was mighty handy for Black pit as Acid immunity meant it was very easy. Storm Wyrms and Bile Wyrms fell by the wayside and and at the end of it it Lord Alkaline had plenty of loot. The pick of the bunch however was Anabasis and a Ring of Extra Attacks +3!..... Kit was rejigged around getting these two into the starting lineup and his damage has gone up from @450 to 650 with Zantetsuken. He's ditched Soulsword as the backup weapon for Excalibur as this is also vorpal. Downside to this kit is the drop in HPS as well as INT but hopefully some more nice stuff will turn up to allow this to change again.

He's reached Chlvl 50 and he's still using Zantetsuken. His latest foray in Angband took him to level 84 where he got the {special} level feeling and it ended up being 'Thror' in a large Vault. They took some getting as he took down alot of uniques on this level (Demogorgon, Tarrasque, Y'Golonac, Atlach Nacha, Biketal, Mephistoles, Godzilla etc). He also destructed Tiamat away (she was down to 1 star but surrounded me with summons which had to go straight away). Mephistoles was the only one that dropped something useful - 'Necklace of the Dwarves' which he equipped straight away (covering the Disenchant res hole which he was covering with his swap weapon for Zantetsuken (randart vorpal bastart sword - 'Amras') - it was disenchanted by -2 to both to hit and damage when I forgot to swap in Amras when fighting a Black Reaver - slightly annoying but not the end of the world I guess.

He is powerful but his kit leaves him short on Int and Con. Hopefully these problems can be rectified soon as he has 1% failure for most of his spells which is annoying (and could prove fatal).

The ring of extra attacks +3 really has made a huge difference.

He's up to the GWOP in the arena but I dont' want to take it on yet as he only has 11 healing charges.

:-)

On 30.9.2009 01:00 sng.god@gmail.com wrote:I took the GWOP on regardless of my comment. I toyed with the idea of using a Poison Needle (and I'm sure this would've been the best course) but I didn't feel like training it up and figured Taratol would prove useful (Imm Elec + the slay). Other changes for this Arena battle included Thror for Shiva, Hammerhand for Thranduil, Belthronding for Crimson.

It was comfortable enough although at one point the GWOP double moved and breathed both times (Gravity and something else) which took him down to @290 hps when it still had @2/3rds of it's hps. This was the closest it got and in the end Lord Alkaline had used 9 of his 11 healing charges. Probably a bit reckless but there you have it. The GWOP is down and he now has a Healing Rod Charge.

Straight after that Shooting Star was taken care of and he pumped his second staff of Mana Burst to 11 and got 6 charges worth of nourishment on devouring it (he now has 17 charges of Mana Burst in the Bank which is handy).

Unfortunately at one point on Angband he must've devoured a Staff of Genocide without realising (you get into auto-pilot mode after a while) and it only had 3 charges so this is going to take some pumping.

These Magic Eaters sure have some staying power. I really like them.

Not sure whether to take down some more Dungeon Guardians or to dive further in Angband. I think it will be Angband. If he gets the Unicorn as his 88 quest though he will skip it.

I've noticed too that Zantetsuken doesn't seem to mind taking down Night Mares. I forgot to swap in Amras (as I assumed they were females) and found to my pleasant surprise that it had no problem slicing the Night Mare up good and proper.

it was the best result he could hope for with the Quest monster being Cerberus. lol - he was easy and he dropped Amber.

This kicked off a chain reaction with his kit being completely rejigged to accomodate it and also trying to fix his Con and Int woes.

The result is reduced offence (damage going from 740 to 509 with Excalibur) but he gains his full potential in Con (gaining 163 hps - 880 to 1043) as well. He got another staff of healing on Angband 88.

Basically Excalibur, Mirror Yatan-No-Kagami, randart Armour Poison Barrier, Amber and Thror are in for the moment and Zantetsuken, Anabasis, Arvedui, Thranduil and Shiva's boots are out...

Not sure if this is correct but wanted to maintain Telepathy (Mirror) and Excalibur covers Shards and is vorpal and doesn't have any qualms attacking women and jellies...... I like the extra hps although he still has 1% fail on spells so hopefully scumming Angband 98 will see some equipment juggling happening again soon.

So long and thanks for the memories Zantetsuken but it's time to hang you up on the wall.

Scumming summons on Angband 98 and underestimated and got lazy with the Norsa. Breathed a couple of times and Lord Alkaline was toast........

He found a nice Diamond Edge which he was using but it's all for naught now.

I hate losing a Chlvl 50 character but there you go.

Time for a Priest next I think.

On 1.10.2009 14:22 chriskousky@hotmail.com wrote:I'm sorry to hear that. I was really rooting for this guy ... Lack of double resistance is probably the major weakness of the magic eater (I might also add lack of passwall as well, but that's because I am a scummy player :)